IOC halts planning for boxing at 2020 Olympics

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Tokyo - The
International Olympic Committee on Friday froze preparations for boxing at
the 2020 Games and launched a probe into the sport's troubled governing
body, warning it could be stripped of the right to run the competition.

The IOC stressed it still wanted boxing to go ahead at Tokyo 2020 but
warned its inquiry into the International Boxing Association (AIBA)
"can lead to the withdrawal of (its) recognition".

But the IOC said it would make "all efforts to protect the athletes
and ensure that a boxing tournament can take place at the Olympic Games
Tokyo 2020 regardless of these measures".

It added that it still had concerns over the "governance, ethics and
financial management" of AIBA, which last month elected as president a
controversial Uzbek businessman linked to organised crime by the US
Treasury Department, a claim he denies.

IOC sports director Kit McConnell said qualifying for the 2020 boxing
tournament had been put on hold, making it the only sport not to have
its qualifiers approved.

"We are not going ahead, while the inquiry is underway, with any
qualification system for the Olympic boxing competition in Tokyo,"
McConnell said.

"The step today is a very significant one and I'm not sure it's one that's ever been done," added the sports director.

The freeze encompasses all official contact between AIBA and Tokyo
2020 organisers, as well as ticket sales, test event planning and
finalising the competition schedule.

Tokyo 2020 spokesman Masa Takaya said organisers would be "very keen
to work closely with the IOC to address any impact that we may have."

Relations between the IOC and AIBA took a dive at the 2016 Rio
Olympics when 36 officials and referees were suspended amid allegations
of bout fixing.

Ties were further battered earlier this month when AIBA elected Gafur
Rakhimov as leader, who strenuously rejects the charges from the US
Treasury Department.

AIBA made a last-ditch bid to persuade the IOC that it had cleaned up
its act, issuing a flurry of statements lauding its own efforts on
financing and judging.

It said a new judging system brought in after the Rio scandal had
been "positively received by athletes and technical officials alike."

The association also said that it had restored its finances to a
healthy level and implemented "stringent" new controls to turn the page
on previous mismanagement.

"The fear of going bankrupt due to past financial mismanagement is
now far behind us," said Rakhimov in a statement released on Thursday.

"It is time to turn the page and look further to the development of boxing worldwide," added the 67-year-old.

The IOC did acknowledge progress in the areas of judging and refereeing, and anti-doping.

But IOC spokesman Mark Adams stressed: "It's not just about Rakhimov, it's a whole range of things in terms of governance."

McConnell admitted it was not a "comfortable situation for anyone",
with just over 600 days until the opening ceremony but insisted the IOC
had the athletes' best interests at heart.

The measures are "designed to protect you as an athlete ... and the integrity of the competition," he said.

Boxing has an ancient Olympic tradition and was introduced to the
Ancient Games by the Greeks in the seventh century B.C., according to
the IOC website.

It made its debut at the modern games in St. Louis in 1904 and has
featured at every Olympics since, apart from the Stockholm Games of 1912
because Swedish law at the time banned the sport.

Several famous boxers have made their debut on the world stage in the Olympic Ring.

An 18-year-old called Cassius Clay won gold at the 1960 Rome
Olympics, kickstarting the career of a boxer who would become Muhammad
Ali, considered the greatest of all time.

Sugar Ray Leonard, George Foreman, Floyd Mayweather and Leon
Spinks are all other celebrated names in the boxing world who got their
break at the Olympics.

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